Bob Fu (pictured), founder and president of Church in Chains partner organisation China Aid, has written an article for the Wall Street Journal detailing a continuing campaign of threats and intimidation against him, his family and China Aid aimed at stopping their work in highlighting the persecution of Christians in China. Bob founded China Aid in 2002 in Midland, Texas, USA after fleeing China with his wife Heidi. He had been imprisoned for his Christian activities in China.
In the Wall Street Journal article, he outlines how in 2023, “I began receiving text messages from unknown numbers urging me to stop my advocacy efforts for Chinese dissidents and threatening consequences if I refused. The regime’s track record of surveillance and intimidation suggests it also launched a systematic ‘swatting’ campaign against me: Hotel rooms in Houston, Los Angeles, New York and Washington were booked using my name, and then people falsely claiming to be me called in bomb threats to the various locations.”
He goes on to explain, “Since Mr Xi [Xi Jinping] came to power, many of my friends and colleagues have been targets of hostility and intimidation. At least twelve employees of my religious-freedom nonprofit [China Aid] – all naturalised U.S. citizens – have been arbitrarily detained while traveling to China to visit family. Each one was told to spy on the organisation once he returned.”
Bob Fu’s article also details the most direct threats against his family in autumn 2020 when he had to go into hiding with his family for six weeks following death threats from suspected members of the Chinese Communist Party. The family returned home under police protection.
“From late September to early November 2020, my family and I experienced physical threats and stalking outside our West Texas home. As many as 100 people gathered in front of our residence—what I can only imagine was the workings of the Communist Party. The threats were so credible that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local law-enforcement officers had to rescue my family, leading us through the alley beside our house and to various safe houses.”
In March 2025, a congressman from Texas August Pfluger introduced a bill to the US Congress calling for the creation of a Transnational Repression Taskforce within the Department of Homeland Security to monitor and prevent acts of harassment and intimidation by foreign countries.
Testimony at US Congressional Committee Hearing
In February 2025, Bob Fu spoke at a U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) hearing about the Chinese Communist Party’s systematic suppression of religious groups and its persecution of activists advocating for religious and political rights.
China Aid reported that “He pointed out that the suppressed groups include house church Christians, underground Catholics, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, and others who are suffering relentless persecution. The Chinese Communist Party’s repressive tactics include arbitrary arrests, enforced disappearances, torture, reeducation camps, and the criminalisation of ordinary religious activities.”
Bob outlined the patterns of persecution used by the Chinese Communist Party, including fabrication and false accusations, prolonged detention and intentional trial delays, politically motivated verdicts, abuse of border smuggling laws, misuse of “illegal business operations” charges to suppress religious education and publications, as well as internet surveillance and cult-related accusations.”
Bob gave eight specific examples of persecution, where individuals were targeted solely for their religious beliefs or for political and cultural advocacy driven by their faith and conscience. The persecuted individuals from different regions of China, encompass various ethnic groups and faiths. These cases include Pastor Wang Yi of the Early Rain Covenant Church in Sichuan, Christian Wang Honglan from Inner Mongolia, Christian lawyer Gao Zhisheng from Shaanxi, (all pictured), Bishop Peter Shao Zhumin of the Wenzhou Catholic Diocese, Uyghur professor Ilham Tohti from Xinjiang, Tibetan faith and cultural advocate Sonam Choedrub, pro-democracy activists and Christians Joshua Wong, Professor Benny Tai, and Jimmy Lai from Hong Kong, as well as U.S. permanent resident and Christian democracy activist Dr. Wang Bingzhang.
USCIRF report
USCIRF’s recently-published 2025 Annual Report assesses religious freedom violations and progress in 28 countries during the calendar year 2024 and makes independent recommendations for U.S. policy.
The report’s key findings on China state: “In 2024, religious freedom conditions in China remained among the worst in the world. Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping continued to lead efforts to update and enforce China’s “sinicisation of religion” policy, which requires the complete loyalty and subordination of recognized religious groups to the CCP, its political ideology, and its policy agenda.
“Chinese authorities detained, forcibly disappeared, or refused to disclose the whereabouts of underground Catholic clergy who declined to join the state-controlled Catholic organisation. Independent house church Protestants faced similar retribution from law enforcement for refusing to join the state-controlled Protestant organisation, as police raided house churches and harassed, detained, fined, and imprisoned members on reportedly fabricated charges, including ‘fraud’ and ‘subversion.’”
The report recommended that the US government “Redesignate China as a ‘country of particular concern,’ for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom and coordinate with international partners to sanction Chinese officials and entities responsible for severe religious freedom violations.”
(China Aid, USCIRF)
Images: Church in Chains, China Aid, Wikipedia, USCIRF